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Last Train Home
Last Train Home
Lixin Fan / Canada, China / 2009 / 85 min.
When the Zhangs abandoned their home, along with their parents and oneyear- old child, 16 years ago, they believed it was the best for all concerned. For many years, they worked to earn money for their family as labourers in textile factories, only returning home for a few days annually to celebrate New Year. At that time every year China is crippled by transport chaos, especially on its rail network. Overcrowded carriages take up to 130 million migrant workers home to their nearest and dearest, though once they get there they often find they have become strangers to their own children. The Zhangs want nothing more than to provide their child with a solid education to help her have a better life than they have had. But without realising it, they end up bringing about the opposite. The family's fate mirrors the experience of millions of others who pay a great price for China's headlong economic development. Lixin Fan's debut won the main featurelength documentary award at Amsterdam's IDFA festival.
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